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Circumstances are not sovereign over the good of life, for
they are themselves moulded by their priors and come in as
members of a sequence. The Leading-Principle holds all the
threads while the minor agents, the individuals, serve according
to their own capacities, as in a war the generalissimo lays down
the plan and his subordinates do their best to its furtherance.
The Universe has been ordered by a Providence that may be
compared to a general; he has considered operations, conditions
and such practical needs as food and drink, arms and engines of
war; all the problem of reconciling these complex elements has
been worked out beforehand so as to make it probable that the
final event may be success. The entire scheme emerges from the
general's mind with a certain plausible promise, though it cannot
cover the enemy's operations, and there is no power over the
disposition of the enemy's forces: but where the mighty general
is in question whose power extends over all that is, what can
pass unordered, what can fail to fit into the plan?
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